as I struck my aching head with my hand, I cried: "He shall hear of this! I

will be revenged! I will not suffer like a spaniel! He shall know, beggar

and friendless as I am, that I will not tamely submit to injury!" Each day,

each hour added to these exaggerated wrongs. His praises were so many

adder's stings infixed in my vulnerable breast. If I saw him at a distance,

riding a beautiful horse, my blood boiled with rage; the air seemed

poisoned by his presence, and my very native English was changed to a vile

jargon, since every phrase I heard was coupled with his name and honour. I

panted to relieve this painful heart-burning by some misdeed that should

rouse him to a sense of my antipathy. It was the height of his offending,

that he should occasion in me such intolerable sensations, and not deign

himself to afford any demonstration that he was aware that I even lived to

feel them.

It soon became known that Adrian took great delight in his park and

preserves. He never sported, but spent hours in watching the tribes of

lovely and almost tame animals with which it was stocked, and ordered that

greater care should be taken of them than ever. Here was an opening for my

plans of offence, and I made use of it with all the brute impetuosity I

derived from my active mode of life. I proposed the enterprize of poaching

on his demesne to my few remaining comrades, who were the most determined

and lawless of the crew; but they all shrunk from the peril; so I was left

to achieve my revenge myself. At first my exploits were unperceived; I

increased in daring; footsteps on the dewy grass, torn boughs, and marks of

slaughter, at length betrayed me to the game-keepers. They kept better

watch; I was taken, and sent to prison. I entered its gloomy walls in a fit

The Last Man